Promising Practices

Promising Practices was an interesting day for me. I was exhausted when I first arrived at RIC and was not looking forward to the long day ahead of me. I got there are went to go get my folder and walked around for a little while, checking out some of the tables with a few girls from class. Then Tara and I headed off to our first session. The first session was the Teaching Transgender in schools. I got a lot out of this session. I only knew a few things about transgender and knew even less about children who are transgender. The first thing the presenter explained to us was the way people feel when they are trangender. They feel "that they were born in the wrong body". Then she told us a story a little girl who is transgender. She was biologically born a male and at six years old realized that he was "supposed" to be a girl. Now after undergoing his changes he is known as Josie and goes around to schools and gives speeches so that people will be able to understand how to accept children who are transgender and also to explain a little bit about it so that the children won't feel so ignorant to the idea. Two things that caught my eye in this session were the fact that Rhode Island was the second state to make gender expression and gender identity part of their school policy. The second thing that caught my eye was the statistic that she gave us; over 50% of transsexuals will have had atleast one suicide attempt by their 20th birthday, some as young as seven. That just shocked me. Most of these attempts are because they weren't being accepted and didn't feel comfortable. It was defianlty a shock that the statistic was that high.

The second session I attended was A.L.L.I.E.D. This was my favorite part of the day. This session touched my heart like nothing ever before. A few things I wrote down in my notes during this session was, "don't use minority, used underrepresented". I think that this is a better term to use than minority, because I think that minority sometimes comes packaged with a negative vibe, when it really shouldn't be. I also wrote down something that Tara talked about during the session and we had also talked about it outside of class. It was empathy versus sympathy. I never really thought of how much a difference each one is from eachother. When Tara explained it, it totally clicked, and I actually felt bad because I think that I sometimes do show sympathy in a way that could be taken wrong, and I feel like I might have made someone feel worse before when I was really trying to help. After this I try and watch how I state things when I am talking about an emotional situation. I think this group is the best thing at Rhode Island College. It gives students a chance to vent about things that they normally hold in or feel uncomfortable to talk about with some people. This session was very personal and I loved the poems that the group members read aloud. They were direct and too the point but made their point loud and clear. I wish that everyone could have attended that session because I believe they could of learned a lot from it. When I was in this session it really reminded me of Johnson. I feel like in the Allied group they can all use the "words" that everyone is so scared to say. I think this helps them trust and understand each other. If only everyone could listen to Johnson's ideas, maybe we would be able to take a step forward and remove all of our prejudices.

I thought Tricia Rose was a great key note speaker. She mentioned so many things that we talk about in class. Like someone said in class the other day, "It was like she was their to talk about our class". She mentioned things about indivial identity and group identity which reminded me of Rodriguez even though it was a little bit different. She also gave points about Johnson and how we need to be able to say the words and be able to bring up painfulness in a situation in order to have an effect on it. Some of the things I took from the Tricia Rose speech was how she talked about people have to been seen as an individual and a group in order to be understood and accepted. You can't generalize someone just because they are gay, lesbian, latino or african american. You can understand their individualism as a person and then say that they are associate with that specific group, but they are their own person. Even though someone is identified in a particular group, doesn't mean they are like everyother person also identified in that group.
I love how Tricia was more of a story teller, than a lecturer. She had the audience engaged and was outgoing and enthusiastic. I defiantley think that she was the best picked for the key note and had much to teach us about what she knows and what she has encountered. I'm really glad I went to Promising Practices. I took a lot from it and I also grabbed a few panphlets that I may be able to use in the future.



I found this video and I had to add it. It went so well with my first session abotu Trangender. Hope you Like it.